Second Harvest Food Bank VISTA
Second Harvest Food Bank VISTA
Please consider this exciting opportunity to contribute to our mission, gain valuable work experience!
All United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley AmeriCorps VISTA assignments will expand capacity towards population level goals across the region. UWGLV strives to create population level change in areas of education, food access, healthy aging and emergency services to ensure individuals who experience crisis have the supports they need to rebound. The UWGLV VISTA project focuses on strengthening the networks of providers that deliver services to address concerns and through working with UWGLV staff they support the efforts across all four-issue areas. VISTAs address issues at the programmatic and system levels seeking to identify and deal with the root causes by utilizing the collective impact framework.
An AmeriCorps VISTA assignment is a federal volunteer opportunity for which you commit to a year of service and receive a living allowance. Participants must be 18 years of age and have a combination of community service and/or equivalent college experience. They receive an end-of-service stipend or education award, health coverage, training, a relocation allowance, a living allowance, options for student loan forbearance, and childcare assistance if eligible. The work is full-time for one service year; VISTAs are permitted to do paid part-time work during their assignment to supplement their income.
Second Harvest Food Bank VISTA
The Second Harvest Food Bank VISTA will focus on bridging gaps between local and charitable food systems and promote an under-utilized program to increase fresh food access. They will focus on increasing the reach across the local food system to improve purchase and distribution of local foods. They will work to onboard at least 15 farmers across the six-county service area and working with SHFB staff to develop program evaluation procedure for both farmers and partner agencies. The VISTA will focus on building out a health and racial equity standards to provide more culturally relevant foods to community neighbors. This work will feed into broader efforts to ensure we are responsive to specific needs and preferences of those being served. Subsidy purchases will also be used to inform the production strategy of The Seed Farm in the 2024 season.
If you have questions, you may contact Jennifer Nicolosi, Asst. Director, AmeriCorps Programs, 610-807-5741, jennifern@unitedwayglv.org